Yevhen Khmara

Zelenskyy assigned Yevhen Khmara, then acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine, to perform the Defence Minister's duties on 16 July 2026, pending a Verkhovna Rada confirmation vote. The appointment followed the sacking of Mykhailo Fedorov the day before , and came after Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, the initially touted replacement, turned the post down.

Khmara previously commanded the SBU's Alpha Special Operations Centre, the service's elite counter-terrorism and special-operations unit, before rising to acting head of the SBU itself. Zelenskyy cited his experience in technological strike operations and long-range strike work as the rationale for handing him the defence brief, an unusual move putting an intelligence and special-forces background rather than a political one in charge of the ministry.

The appointment remains provisional: Khmara is performing the minister's duties, not formally confirmed, and the choice landed amid three consecutive days of street protests over Fedorov's removal in eight cities. Whether Parliament ratifies him, or Zelenskyy reaches for another name, will shape how the ministry manages the mobilisation and brigade problems Zelenskyy himself admitted remain unresolved.